They were too good for the defending champions, running out 5-2 victors, much to coach Barrie Pritchard’s delight.

He was a bit concerned when he arrived and they had no goalkeeper.

“Kate Mackay volunteered to do that,” he said. 

He thought the midfield was what got the result for them, with Waratahs boasting a pretty handy midfield.

“Had our midfield not competed with theirs, they would have made mince meat of us,” he said.

Kate Ferguson, Kim Resch, Julie Rodda and Maddie Doyle were the main four there.

Rodda got them on the board, swooping on a rebound from a penalty corner about 12 minutes in.

Five minutes later she made a good run into the circle and Doyle finished for their second.

Waratahs hit back a minute later to make it 2-1, which it stayed through to the break.

Flames didn’t take long to get on the front foot in the second half, with Ash Allen scoring off a direct penalty corner hit, and two minutes later Robyn Mansfield putting the finishing touch on some good interplay between Ferguson and Rodda.

 Then in the final minutes Georgia Horniman tapped the ball in for a goal on debut after Resch had made a great run down the right.

Their passing game was one of the things Pritchard was most happy with.

“I said to them at half-time, a lot of the things we’ve been working on at training we’re executing, and we’re playing the sidelines really well,” he said.

He thought Ferguson had an outstanding game.

Allen and sister Mel were also good at the back, along with Bek May.

Waratahs coach Graeme McKenzie was quick to answer where it went wrong for them.

“Our passing,” he said.

“We didn’t control the ball. 

“We turned it over way too often.” 

And Flames punished them for it.

He thought they did finish the first half on top, even though they were down at the break.

“The latter part (of the half) we started to throw the ball around quite well,” McKenzie said.

But then the second half started and they reverted to their ways of earlier in the half.

He thought Abigail Doolan was their best, although even she was guilty of some bad turnovers.

“The big four in the midfield – Abigail, Katrina (Rekunow), Tahlia (Rekunow) and Sarah Askey – still played well,” he said.

Lara Taggart also made some really important saves in goals.

They were again missing players, as were Flames. 

Earlier in the wet, Olympians and Services played out a 3-all draw.

It was Olympians’ second draw and an encouraging result, with Services on top of the table, although it was hard to take too much out of it, captain Em Chaffey said. 

“It was really hard with the rain,” she said.

“The field was just soaked.” 

“Every time you hit the ball it was just stopping.”

What they can draw from is the way they came back.

“I think we did really well to come back to 3-all,” Chaffey said.

They were down 3-1 at one stage.

Sarah Payne slotted all three goals.

Chaffey thought Jess Clarke, Heidi Schimann and Hollie Littlejohns were their best.

Littlejohns was one of five players backing up from second grade.

Double goalscorer Michelle Aslin topped the points for Services ahead of Lori Edgar and Kate Perrett.